trier

From Middle English triour,[1] from Anglo-Norman triour and Middle English trien (equivalent to try +‎ -er).[2]

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹaɪə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)

trier (plural triers)

1. One who tries; one who makes experiments or examines anything by a test or standard.
   • 1663, Robert Boyle, “Essay V. Proposing Some Particulars wherein Natural Philosophy may be Useful to the Therapeutical Part of Physick.”, in Some Considerations Touching the Vsefulnesse of Experimental Naturall Philosophy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Hen[ry] Hall printer to the University, for Ric[hard] Davis, →OCLC, part II, section I (Of It’s Usefulness to Physick), chapter III, page 132:

     […] I had once brought me a certain Earth, by a Gentleman that digg'd it up in this, or ſome neighboring Country, vvhich, though it ſeem'd but a Mineral Earth, did really afford, to a very expert tryer of Metals of my acquaintance, a not deſpicable proportion of Gold.

2. An instrument used for sampling something.
   • 2009, Stephanie Clark, Michael Costello, Floyd Bodyfelt, The Sensory Evaluation of Dairy Products, page 145:

     The judge should grasp the butter trier firmly in hand and insert the sampling device as near as possible to the center of the butter sample.

3. One who tries judicially.
4. (law) A person appointed by law to try challenges of jurors; a trior.
5. (obsolete) That which tries or approves; a test.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Nay, mother, / Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd / To say, extremity was the trier of spirits

• tryer

• cheese trier
• trier of fact

• “trier”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Riter, Terri

From Middle French trier, from Old French trier (“to choose, pick out or separate from others, sift, cull”), of uncertain origin.

1. Widely assumed to be derived from Late Latin trītāre (“to grind”), from Latin trītus, the past participle of terō, terere, with the semantic shift seemingly originating from the Latin set phrase Latin granum terere (“to beat the corn from the chaff”), which can also be found in modern French as trier le grain. The semantic shift would be proved by the Italian cognate tritare (“to grind”), which also features “to sort” as an archaic sense. The cognates Occitan triar (“to pick out, choose from among others”) and Catalan triar (“to pick, choose”), who cannot reflect trītāre (which would have yielded *tridar) must then be considered borrowings from French.
2. Alternatively, from a Gallo-Romance hypothetical *trīō, trīāre, which would make Occitan triar and Catalan triar inherited cognates instead of borrowings. The archaic sense of Italian tritare whould thus be due to influence of the French word. Ultimately could be an outcome of a metathetic alteration Vulgar Latin *tīrāre (“to pull”), undergoing a pretty straightforward semantical shift. In this case the word would be doublet of tirer (“to pull”).

• IPA^(key): /tʁi.je/

• audio

  (file)

trier

1. to sort, to sort out

   Trier le tas de lettres.

   Sort (out) the pile of letters.

2. to grade; to calibrate

• tri
• trier sur le volet (“to handpick, to carefully select”)
• triage

• “trier”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• tirer

Disputed; see English try.

trier

1. to choose; to select
2. to sort
3. to find
4. to verify; to make sure of
5. (law) to try (in court)
6. to pull

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

• → English: try
• French: trier

• trier on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (trier)